Clips of film archive go online

It is hoped the clips will get the public involved in film history

A project to release hundreds of hours of archived Scottish film footage online has completed its first stage.

The Scottish Screen Archive believes the 1,000 pieces of footage will prove a valuable public resource.

Among the clips are economic changes in Caithness from the Dounreay nuclear power plant and sprinter Alan Wells preparing for the 1980 Moscow Olympics.

The preview clips can be viewed by searching on the Scottish Screen Archive's website.

The archive covers more than 100 years of Scotland's history in film and video.

It was designated a national collection and in April 2007 was transferred from Scottish Screen to the stewardship of the National Library of Scotland.

The archive has footage of ordinary life over 100 years

Janet McBain, the archive curator, said: "Now we have clips of nearly 1,000 films on our website, so people can go onto our website and just plouter around, see what's out there and maybe find something that they're in themselves.

"So there's a wonderful resource now that we have available and we'll be working with many, many partners over the next few years to get the films into the community and used in new, imaginative ways."

Ms McBain said they key to the social history value of the collection was that members of the public could connect their own family history to the footage.

The complete archive houses more than 32,000 items and is based just outside Glasgow.